The Iranian national soccer team, displaying remarkable moral courage in the face of the killings of protesters by their despotic, tyrannical government, refused to sing along with their national anthem at the World Cup prior to their opening game against England.
#BREAKING: Iran national team players choose not to sing national anthem at World Cup match; some of the Iranian crowed booing their own national anthem pic.twitter.com/RYPvgHMNUi
— Amichai Stein (@AmichaiStein1) November 21, 2022
The current anthem of Iran, the “National Anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” was adopted in 1990. Its lyrics state:
Upwards on the horizon rises the Eastern Sun
The light in the eyes of the believers in truth
Bahman is the zenith of our faith
Your message, O Imam, of independence, freedom, is imprinted on our souls.
O Martyrs! Your clamors echo in the ears of time
Enduring, continuing, and eternal
The Islamic Republic of Iran!
Iran has had six national anthems: between 1873 and 1909, the “Royal Salute”; between 1909 and 1933, the “Salute of the Sublime State of Persia”; between 1933 and 1979, the “Imperial Anthem of Iran,”; “Oh Iran,” which served briefly as the anthem between the fall of the Shah of Iran and the founding of the Islamic theocracy, and “Long Live Iran,” which was in use until the death of Ayatollah Khomeini in 1990.
The U.S. Navy Band records the national anthems of other countries but has not recorded the “National Anthem of the Islamic Republic of Iran” since the U.S. does not have diplomatic relations with the despotic Iranian theocratic regime.
The captain of Iran’s soccer team implicitly spoke out about the terrorizing of Iranian citizens by the government in his home country prior to the game against England. “I offer my condolences to all the bereaved families of Iran. And let them know that we are with them and sympathize with them,” he stated.
IMPORTANT 🇮🇷 Ahead of their game against England, Iran’s captain Ehsan Hajsafi becomes the first Iranian player to speak out in support of women’s rights protesters in his home country, expressing condolences to families who’ve lost loved ones.pic.twitter.com/iyOiZ9cikl
— Men in Blazers (@MenInBlazers) November 21, 2022
Protests in Iran have surged since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the government’s morality police in mid-September. Since then, 378 Iranians have been killed by the government’s “security forces,” including 47 children and 27 women, according to the non-profit Iran Human Rights (IHR).
“Based on our information, the killing of protesters were committed exclusively by the Islamic Republic’s repressive forces,” the Director of Iran Human Rights, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, stated. “The responsibility for the killing of protesters rests solely with the Islamic Republic and its leader, Ali Khamenei.”
According to IHR, protesters have been killed in 25 provinces, with 40 protesters killed in by state “security forces” in the week between November 12 and November 19.